{"id":490641,"date":"2026-10-09T18:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490641\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T18:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:46:09","slug":"ca-prop-40-sen-bernie-sanders-rallies-in-la-in-support-of-proposed-billionaire-tax-the-whole-country-is-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490641\/","title":{"rendered":"CA Prop 40: Sen. Bernie Sanders rallies in LA in support of proposed billionaire tax: ‘The whole country is watching’"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his message of income inequality to Los Angeles on Monday night to try to achieve what hasn’t been achieved anywhere else — a billionaire’s tax.<\/p>\n

“The whole country is watching what you are doing here, and why it is so imperative that we win this struggle,” Sanders told the crowd.<\/p>\n

California’s Prop 40, which is on the November ballot, would fund the state’s healthcare system as it’s facing severe cuts from the Big Beautiful Bill by enacting a one-time 5% tax on the accumulated wealth of California taxpayers worth more than $1 billion — which is about 250 people.<\/p>\n

“They believe, like the monarchs of the 19th century, that they have a God-given right to rule. They have all the wealth; they got all the power, and who the hell do you think you are challenging them? Well, I think on Nov. 3 they’re going to learn a very powerful lesson,” Sanders said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: California billionaire tax: Here’s everything you need to know about Proposition 40<\/a><\/p>\n

Could California become the first state in the country to enact a billionaire tax? Proposition 40 is an effort to fund the state’s healthcare system by taxing the ultra-wealthy.<\/p>\n

In the audience at Monday’s event were healthcare workers like Rocio Chacon. She believes she’ll lose her job if Prop 40 doesn’t pass.<\/p>\n

“This is the only option we have right now. We haven’t heard anything other than tax the billionaires one time,” said Chacon.<\/p>\n

Rapper Common warmed up the crowd at the Yes on Prop 40 rally at Downtown Los Angeles’ Novo Theater. Northern California Congressman Ro Khanna, who went after California Gov. Gavin Newsom — who opposes Prop 40 — introduced Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

“Many union members are tired of democratic politicians like Gavin Newsom taking their marching orders from donors who would fund a presidential campaign. Gavin, you can’t pretend to be anti-Trump while doing the bidding of Trump’s donors,” Khanna said.<\/p>\n

Newsom has said Prop 40 could lead to California losing its competitive edge, driving wealthy residents and businesses out of the state. But at the rally, the message was that billionaires are not victims.<\/p>\n

“When working people stand together, we can take them on, and we can beat them,” Sanders said.<\/p>\n

Polling shows that Californians are divided over Prop 40. A recent Berkeley iIGS\/L.A. Times poll <\/a>on Prop 40 found that 45% support a billionaire tax, 42% do not and 13% are undecided.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his message of income inequality to Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[191361,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-490641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-191361","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}